Life at Home

I know everyone who has a job (including myself) always thinks it would be so much more awesome to have all the days off – to sleep in, cook great food (or just eat ice cream), and run all the errands you want. You would think that would be true, but…keep your day job.

There are a lot of days that are dull and boring. When you don’t have a really good reason to change out of your pajamas or take a shower, it’s really easy to let Netflix rule the day.

In an effort to NOT let all these great glorious days of rest go by without consequence (and because I have found myself bored out of my mind and entirely too restless to be healthy), I have taken on several crafty projects that you will probably want to know about so you can laugh with me.

I’ve read five books (yeah, I know. Insane. Praise the GOOD LORD for the library or I would be paying rent in book pages and sewing them together to make clothes.) But I’ll tell you more about that in a later post. I’m going to try to hit ten before the end of the month. Pray with me – ha!

I stopped using “real” shampoo (today makes three weeks!). While on the Race, I stopped using shampoo for a while simply because it was easier than carting around bottles of the stuff when you’re airport-traveling every 26-30 days. This time, I decided to be a little more calculated about it, so I spent a lot of time on Pinterest….
I found several different “recipes” and scenarios for a no-poo lifestyle. I decided to still use baking soda (1tbsp mixed with a 16oz bottle of water – I just keep the bottle in the shower) every other shower or so, depending on how oily my hair felt/looked. Otherwise, I would just rinse with water. The whole concept (I’m going really scientific here) is that there are crazy toxins in normal shampoos that can be bad for you – they can mess with your hormone levels and throw your emotions off balance (as if I need any more of that) and mess with your body and all these other weird things. The baking soda + water mixture has worked pretty well for about three weeks now. I haven’t had any major problems. The luxury of being at home all the time is I can stretch the time between using baking soda: if my hair gets more oily, it’s not that big of a deal because I don’t have anyone I have to sit in an office with all day. Win-win. Really, I haven’t had a huge problem with oil this time around and can go several days without the baking soda.
If I’ve needed conditioner, I either use a little bit of coconut oil or a mixture of honey + water. I completely prefer either of these options over anything I’ve used from the store. Ever. Even if you stick with your normal shampoo, this stuff is so much more effective than regular conditioners. You still keep your volume/body and there’s no weird buildup on your hair at all (unless you use too much, of course).

(I’ve also been dying my hair with henna for an entire year and I WILL NEVER GO BACK. It is so great. My hair is so healthy and the color is beautiful. Lush Cosmetics has great options for henna dyes. The color builds over time. Your hair is so so healthy. Totally worth looking into if you dye your hair regularly.)

I also stopped using store-bought deodorant. I could blog for days about this, but I’ll sum it up pretty quick. Clogging your armpit pours is bad because you’re meant to sweat. You’re also clogging it with bad things, like aluminum and other chemicals, in a place so very close to lymph nodes. I know it might not be a huge deal to many people, but considering how incredibly important your lymphatic system is to your overall body, it’s terrifying that we’re willing to pump our pits full of scary things that could alter our hormone levels and even make us more susceptible to cancer.
I’m using a deo that my dear friend’s mother makes – it has baking soda, corn starch, coconut oil, and some essential oils in it. And I literally love it twenty times more than regular deodorant, all of the ranting about health aside. It works so well. Why did I ever use anything else?!
The first few days are an adjustment – your body has to get used to actually being able to sweat – but after those first few days, it’s been completely fine. And some days, when I’m not going anywhere, I just don’t wear any at all! I can hear you gasping, but giving my pits a break is good. Some people have had negative reactions to natural deodorants with baking soda in them due to sensitive skin. My recommendation is to make sure you wash your pits before bed to give them a break or find a clay-based deo. Either works!

My biggest adventure so far has been making laundry detergent. Oh.my.gosh. Y’all. It is insanely cheap compared to buying detergent – even the natural stuff (which is SO expensive! Can I get an amen?). BUT… it’s not as easy as everyone says it is. The recipe I used included baking soda (literally, can you do anything with this stuff?), washing soda (arm & hammer), oxiclean, and soap bars (I used kirk’s). The powdered ingredients – SO EASY. The bars of soap grated into tiny pieces – NOT. Don’t let them lie to you. Food processors don’t really work because the soap is waxy. Putting it in the microwave makes it super hot/dry and huge (best smelling science experiment of my life), but still requires some work. So, I did them both – I microwaved squares of soap bar for about a minute, let them mostly cool, then put them in the food processor to finish the job.
I, however, in a loss of logic (I will blame this on how great my house smelled from microwaving soap) just dumped all the ingredients in one by one, THEN tried to mix – terrible. It makes a lot of soap, so layering as you dump everything in your container is definitely the right choice.

All of that being said, I made boxed macaroni and cheese tonight for dinner. The kind with the cheese pouch.

2 thoughts on “Life at Home”

I was cracking up while reading this! I’m not nearly as crafty as you but I’ve definitely read way more books while unemployed and I started crocheting a blanket. I may have to try the “no-poo” lifestyle!